What we found
- Sydney, the apartment city. 24.5% of Sydney people live in an apartment in 2026, against 16.1% in 2001.
- Canberra tripled. Canberra went from 5.0% of people in apartments in 2001 to 16.0% in 2026.
- Hobart barely moved. 89.3% of Hobart people still live in a house, against 90.3% in 2001.
- Melbourne left the house without taking the apartment. Houses fell from 83.5% to 74.9% while apartments went only from 8.7% to 10.4%. Townhouses took the difference.
Our research: Houses or apartments, which one to buy
The story: which Australian city has the most apartments?
Sydney, and it is not close. In 2026, 24.5% of Sydney people live in an apartment, made up of 14.2% in blocks of four storeys or more and 10.3% in smaller blocks. Sydney already led in 2001, on 16.1%.
Darwin comes second on 20.2%, up from 11.6% in 2001. Canberra is third on 16.0%, and it is the city that changed most: 5.0% in 2001, 8.2% in 2011, 13.9% in 2021, 16.0% in 2026. Almost all of that growth is in the taller blocks, which went from 0.6% to 10.1%.
The Gold Coast is on 15.8%, Brisbane 10.6% and Melbourne 10.4%. Adelaide, Perth and Hobart all sit under 6%.
Which Australian city still lives in houses?
Hobart. In 2026, 89.3% of its people live in a house, which is where it was in 2001 on 90.3%. Twenty-five years of change barely touched it.
Perth is next on 84.6%, and it has gone nowhere either, from 86.8% in 2001. Adelaide is on 80.9%, Brisbane 79.6%. Sydney is the lowest on 63.4%, down from 73.9%.
Melbourne is the odd one. Its house share fell from 83.5% to 74.9%, a bigger drop than Brisbane or Adelaide, but its apartment share hardly moved, from 8.7% to 10.4%. The difference went to townhouses, which rose from 7.8% to 14.7%. Canberra did the same thing, with townhouses going from 9.6% to 15.8% on top of its apartment growth.
How did voting change in the same neighbourhoods, before and after the Bondi attack?
Our reel: how voting changed in the same neighbourhoods, before and after the Bondi attack.
The same bars were put on a second question. We read the first preference votes at election day booths at the federal election of 3 May 2025, then at five elections held between March and August 2026: the South Australian state election and the Nepean, Farrer, Stafford and Secret Harbour by-elections. We kept the 669 neighbourhoods that had a booth at both, which covers 631,445 votes in 2025 and 480,726 in 2026. The Bondi attack fell between them, on 14 December 2025.
In those neighbourhoods, the One Nation share among people born in Australia went from 7% to 27%. Among migrants who arrived between 2001 and 2021 it went from 3% to 9%. Among migrants who arrived before 2001, the Labor share fell from 55% to 45%. Across all voters in the same neighbourhoods, One Nation went from 6% to 24%, Labor from 36% to 33% and the Liberals and Nationals from 27% to 19%.
We did not see how any person voted, and nothing here says why anyone voted as they did. The figures are estimates, read from booth results and the make-up of the neighbourhoods around each booth, and some carry a wide range. For migrants who arrived before 2001, the 2026 One Nation estimate runs anywhere from 8% to 27%. People born in Australia are 78.8% of the people in these neighbourhoods, migrants who came before 2001 are 10.4% and those who came from 2001 on are 10.8%.
How do we count who lives in what?
Each figure is the share of people in a city living in that kind of home, not the share of buildings. A block of 40 apartments and a house on the corner count by the people inside them. The four kinds are houses, townhouses, apartments in blocks of one to three storeys, and apartments in blocks of four storeys or more. A small remainder, such as caravans, is left out, so the four do not quite reach 100%.
The years 2001 to 2021 come from the Census, with every year redrawn onto today's city boundaries so the comparison holds. The 2026 column is an estimate, not a count: we take 2021 and add the homes first recorded in the national address register since Census night, up to 21 April 2026, scaled city by city to how well the register tracked the real change from 2011 to 2021.
Nine cities are covered: Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide, the Gold Coast, Canberra, Hobart and Darwin.
How we made this reel
- We counted people, not buildings. Each figure is the share of people living in that kind of home.
- Every Census from 2001 to 2021. Nine cities, drawn on today's boundaries, so the years can be compared.
- 2026 is an estimate. We add the homes first recorded in the national address register since the 2021 Census.
What it means for you
- Know the mix before you shortlist. A street of townhouses is a different market from a street of houses.
- Growth comes from what is scarce. In Perth, 84.6% of people live in a house, so a house there is the ordinary thing.
- Check your own suburb, not your city. Cities average over suburbs that look nothing like each other.
Where to see it on Microburbs
- The homes, in every suburb report. The Market section shows what share of them are houses, townhouses or units.
- Then read it by bedroom. It splits the homes by how many bedrooms they have and what each type sold for.
Get the data
The data behind this reel, for any suburb, is live in our API: the mix of houses, townhouses and units at each bedroom count, with what each sold for. In Kambah, Canberra, 89% of the three bedroom homes are houses, across 8,232 sales. Of the two bedroom homes, 59% are townhouses.
Try it now, free. This request is free for our sample suburbs, one in each state and territory, with no sign up and no card:
curl "https://api.microburbs.com.au/v1/suburbs/Kambah/market/bedroom-stats" \
-H "Authorization: Bearer test"
What it sent back on 10 November 2026, cut to the three bedroom homes, one of four bedroom counts:
{
"data": {
"area_name": "Kambah",
"area_level": "suburb",
"bedrooms": [
{
"bedrooms": 3,
"house_price": 848000,
"unit_price": 675000,
"n_sales": 8232,
"median_bath": 1,
"median_car": 2,
"median_land": 809,
"pct_house": 89,
"pct_unit": 2,
"pct_townhouse": 9
}
]
}
}
See the full API docs for every request, the price of each and how to get a key for the rest of Australia.
See what the homes are like in any suburb
The homes, in every suburb report. The Market section shows what share of them are houses, townhouses or units.
